Voodoo Gurus

One of my main desires of this West African adventure was to experience Voodoo culture. And that I certainly have.

It started in Bamako, Mali visiting its fetish market. But it paled in comparison to the Marché des Féticheurs in Lomé, Togo.  

When animists (voodoo followers) are sick, they apparently go to the doctor and/or hospital first nowadays, but when they can’t get cured, they opt for the fetish market.

Here they are told what head/s they need to buy, which then get ground up and put into water. And a sacrifice is made.

For sale were all manner of: heads including monkeys, vipers, cobras, crocs, leopard, vulture, dog, goat, cat, hyena, warthog and lion cub; skulls including monkeys, buffalo, giraffe and hippo; dried chameleons, snakes, turtles, bat and hedgehog; porcupine quills; tails including cow, horse, elephant and croc; horn bird bills; thunder stones (used for rheumatism); gorilla foot (horrendous); skins including deer, leopard and hippo; metal gongs; cow and buffalo horns; snake spine necklaces; and voodoo dolls with nails, shells, hair and feathers (although the latter are mostly for the tourists).

But perhaps the most disturbing sight of all (WARNING!!! – avert your eyes if you are a cat lover), was a cat that had been skinned and nailed to the ground. Not sure what its purpose was but apparently the next day all that remained was just the skin (the head had disappeared)…

Our next encounter with voodoo was a much more personal one. An extremely personal one in fact. It started off by a chance encounter with a local school teacher at Lake Togo (Lucien) who offered to take us to Togoville and ended with a chance encounter with the Supreme Chief of Voodoo.

Just getting from one side of the lake to the other was an experience in itself, with Lucien and a friend of his using poles to propel us through the water in a pirogue. As we were first-time visitors to the lake, we had to visit the ‘Maison des Ancêtres’ to ensure our pirogue wouldn’t capsize. As it was called the ‘house of ancestors’, naturally I was scanning the lake shore for an actual building. But as it turns out, it was a mythical ‘building’ in the middle of the lake, marked only by a few flags. When we arrived, Lucien asked us each to make a small coin donation. He then scraped off some of the mud attached to his pole from the bottom of the lake onto a coin, made us put a dot of the mud on our foreheads and then blessed us all.

After unexpectedly being carried ashore (in fits of laughter),

we were shown a range of voodoo shrines, some with fresh sacrifices adorning them.

Lucien then asked us if we would like to meet the Supreme Chief of Voodoo and of course we jumped at the chance. We had to be dressed for the occasion – men and women both topless, covered only by colourful patterned fabric (us girls just hitched ours a little higher for modesty).

All of us had to kneel on the ground and clap in a special way as a greeting when the Chief came in. I think most of us were surprised it was a woman, and we later found out she is one of two Supreme Chiefs of Voodoo in Togo – the other is a man living in a different town.

Firstly we were allowed to ask any questions we wanted to about voodoo. After exhausting all of our questions, the majority of which were probably overly naïve, we were asked if we wanted the Chief to predict our future. The cost: 2 litres of African gin, 2 litres of imported gin, and 12,000CFA (about AUD$24 + the gin). The temptation proved to be too much for Amy and I. The Supreme Chief of Voodoo went into a separate room to call the spirits and when she came out, poured gin into some holes near the doorway. We had to kneel and clap when instructed. Then came the readings. Apparently Amy is going to have twins (and was asked if she was scared about that later on!). I, on the other hand, am supposed to have a boy and then a girl. Happiness is also on the horizon for me, so I have to be patient. It will come not from myself but from a friend. At night when I dream, even if I don’t understand it, I shouldn’t be scared. [Strangely enough, I had the most lucid nightmares the following nights…] The spirit of my parents is protecting me and I need to buy something I like in Africa for my mum so when I leave Africa I can be at peace. She strongly encouraged us to come back sometime soon, so she could show us more and we could find further satisfaction. For now though, I was satisfied. I could not have asked for a more personal or more memorable encounter with all that is voodoo.